The field of circular knitting machine has always felt the need to reduce as much as possible the height of the needle cylinder so as to reduce its inertia, in order to be able to increase its rotation rate and therefore increase correspondingly the productivity of these machines.
However, this need clashes with an equally important need, which is versatility, i.e., the possibility to produce on a same machine various kinds of knitting process, the execution of which often entails increasing even considerably the complexity of the needle actuation system, increasing the space occupation entailed by the installation of several accessories around the needle cylinder, which inevitably force an increase in the height of the needle cylinder, which in practice constitutes the only dimensional variable that allows design freedom.
Furthermore, in circular knitting machines there has always been the need to improve the quality level of the manufactured articles. In recent years, this need, has increased, also because continuous improvements have, allowed these machines to produce items that increasingly approximate finished items, reducing and in some times eliminating the use of subsequent processes.
Furthermore, in needle actuation systems of machines of this type it has been noted that in any kind of knitting process the heel of the needles always engages the lowering cams, i.e., the cams that lower the needle into the needle cylinder after engaging the yarn at a drop or feed of the machine, even when the corresponding needle is excluded from knitting at a drop. This engagement with the lowering cams produces unwanted movements of the needle, and if the needle is holding previously formed knitting these movements can alter or even break the stitches, inevitably penalizing the quality of the product.